


(Pre)teenagers Scare the Living Shit Out of Me

by shaqfu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Middle School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7663414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaqfu/pseuds/shaqfu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Middle school may have been ten years ago but it doesn't mean that the secondhand embarrassment hasn't faded away yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Pre)teenagers Scare the Living Shit Out of Me

For the late nights of July, it was hotter than Lance cared to admit. Despite the air conditioning blasting from the vent, Lance still sat in his computer chair, feet propped up against the wall only in his underwear. As he was attempting to get the dry cereal out of the bowl with his tongue instead of using a spoon like a normal human being, he heard his phone vibrate. Grunting as he paused the newest Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure episode, Lance immediately perked up after seeing the name of who was calling.

 

“Don’t you have a big adult interview tomorrow morning, Keith?”

 

“Yea, I do, and I was cleaning through my closet to find the formal shoes that I own and do you know what I found?” Keith asked, actually wanting Lance to answer.

 

Lance hummed to ask ‘what’, half paying attention while scrolling through his Twitter feed.

 

“The Binder.”

 

“The wh—Oh. Oh my God. Keith, no, please I thought we burned that senior year of high school.”

 

“Come on Lance, you can’t escape your past. Remember when…”

 

———

 

As far as Lance was concerned, middle school was the worst and best three years of his life. September 4th 2005 to June 24th 2008 felt so long ago but in reality, it was only ten years ago, which in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t so bad.

 

“Keith, you can’t just tell the whole school your parents are dead! Just because you want to be mysterious and more goth doesn’t mean that you can just go and tell people that to boost your street cred!” Lance whispered to Keith while they were taking their book sock clad textbooks out of their lockers.

 

“My mom said I can’t have a pair of tripp pants for my birthday so I don’t know what else to do.” Keith responded, twitching his head to move his overgrown bangs out of his face.

 

Lance curled his lips over his braces and sucked air through his teeth, assessing the situation. “What if you just, I don’t know, buy them with your birthday money?”

 

“No Lance, you don’t understand, I want to spend my birthday money on a CD of The Black Parade! The Napster version I downloaded is all staticy and you know I hate listening to music off of Youtube because then it’s not on my iPod!" Keith shot back, closing the door.

 

Lance stopped himself from admitting that he already bought his friend The Black Parade for his birthday. “Alright, whatever you say. But if this backfires, we are not skipping Naruto for you to complain, Saturday night. What if you just dye your bangs red or something. It worked for that one eighth grader with the really big eyes,” Lance suggested.

 

“Ug, maybe but it won’t be the same.” Keith considered with a sigh. “I have to go to math, I’ll see you at lunch,” Keith continued on, branching off to walk into the classroom closest to them. Lance walked towards his world civilizations class thinking about how bad of an idea this was.

  
  


“Hey Lance, is it true that Keith’s parents are dead? Is he really an orphan?”

 

“What,” Lance said, after swallowing the bite of his sandwich.

 

“He’s an orphan, right?”

 

_ You better lie or else his mom won’t take us to the mall on Friday and you won’t be able to go to Borders and buy the new Naruto and Bleach volumes. _

 

“Yea, it’s really tragic, isn’t it?” Lance agreed, playing along, eyes wide.

 

“Wow,” the girl whispered. “That is so sad,” dragging out out the “o” in “so”. As soon as she got her answer, she scurried away from the lunch table to meet up with her other friends.

 

After taking the final bite of his sandwich, Keith returned from the lunch line with a just a plate of french fries and a pop tart.

 

“I think it’s working, a girl just asked me if you were an orphan,” Lance announced, ripping the wrapper off of his pudding cup.

 

Keith nodded, this is so going to work.

 

———

 

“Remember how you had to made your high school graduation cap say ‘My parents aren’t dead’? I still think that’s the funniest shit.”

 

“Oh my god, yea,” Keith answered with a laugh. “I can’t believe it actually worked. Like I thought maybe it would help but middle schoolers will believe everything. Like it even got me my first kiss.”

 

“I’m telling you it was because you dyed your bangs red, not the dead parents thing!” Lance shot back, still defending his twelve year old self’s idea.

 

“Hey, you weren’t there,” Keith answered.

 

“Wait,” Lance began, changing the subject. “Does the binder still have the Naruto fan fiction in there that you wanted me to read?”

 

“You mean the fic that you wrote?”

 

———

 

“Lance, listen, I know you think it’s weird for boys to kiss or whatever but I found this really good SasuNaru and I want you to read it,” Keith said as he handed over The Binder to Lance at their bus stop.

 

The Binder was what one would assume it would be. A binder full of Naruto original character stories, role play, and now according to Keith, fan fiction of what Lance assumed was Naruto and Sasuke kissing.

 

Lance knew that Keith was a fan of SasuNaru, however, Keith didn’t know that Lance shared his sentiment. Lance, actually posted fan fiction of his own on [ FanFiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) when nobody else was awake. He was always sure to delete the browsing history and delete all of the cookies for extra measure. He really didn’t get the point of cookies, but he did it anyway.

 

His nights were spent reading stories he printed out in the library, pages at a time. Under his sheets, Lance read the fan works by the light of his flip phone.

 

Of course, Keith could never know this.

 

It was ok for Keith to read SasuNaru, it made sense. Keith sometimes talked about liking boys late at night after they watched Naruto and were laying on the floor looking up at his glow in the dark stars on his ceiling. It was a secret, that was only allowed to be talked about after the clock went back to being in the single digits. If Lance ever mentioned it any other time, Keith would deny it, but that’s what friends were for.

 

Lance sometimes wanted to admit that he felt the same way that Keith did, but he liked girls too, and it seemed weird to like both girls and guys, so he usually listened to Keith instead of admitting how he actually felt. So for now, Lance’s voracious appetite that came to SasuNaru had to stay under wraps.

 

Door closed and locked, Lance looked down at The Binder. Pictures of Team Seven looked back up at Lance as he opened up the cover, prepared to read something that he already read a month ago.

 

Lance began to read and after just ten words, he knew.

 

 _This is my fic._ _I wrote this. I posted the newest chapter two days ago. Oh my God, Keith reads my fan fiction._

 

Sure enough, there on the top of the corner was the the name he went by on [ FanFiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) , Xx_datteBOYo_xX.

 

Lance had to tell Keith, there was no way he could face him in real life and say it. He had to tell him on the phone, right now.

 

Quickly, Lance held down the 5 on his flip phone, speed dial automatically calling Keith’s number.

 

“Hello?” Lance heard on the other line. The familiar music of Twilight Town in the background. Keith must have been playing Kingdom Hearts again.

 

“That SasuNaru you told me to read,” Lance said, bewildered.

 

“Oh, do you like it?” Keith asked, smirk clearly on his lips.

 

“I,” Lance began, desperate to get it out. “I wrote that fic.”

 

There was a cough on the other end. “Har, har, nice try Lance.”

 

“No, Keith, listen. I wrote that. I can show you the next chapter. I finished writing it today. I’m going to type it up tomorrow when my Mom goes to take my sisters to dance. I just, I just was afraid to tell you that I like the idea of Sasuke and Naruto dating!! It makes sense! it feels right, you know?!”

 

Keith was clearly debating if this was an elaborate prank or not. “Alright, I believe you, but show me the next chapter tomorrow on the bus.”

 

———

 

“I can’t believe you then wrote about Sasuke taking Naruto out on a date to a Linkin Park concert.”

 

“Hey, you asked me to!” Lance shouted back into the receiver.

 

“I have to admit, your writing has gotten better,” Keith says, voice softer.

 

Lance blushed at the comment, “God, it better have because my middle school stuff was bad.”

 

“I could read you some, I have The Binder right here,”

 

“No! No,” Lance shrieked, moving to a sitting position.

 

Once again, there was laughter coming from the other line.

 

“Oh man, remember when I asked you to sign my pants?”

 

———

 

“Keith, do you think I should draw the Hidden Leaf Village logo on them or the nobody symbol?” Lance asked, playing with the Sharpie in his hand.

 

“I don’t know, maybe do one on one leg and one on the other,” Keith answered, looking up after he finished filling in a nail with his own permanent marker.

 

Lance gasped, “That’s perfect!”

 

Quickly, Lance began to draw the two symbols on either leg.

 

By the next time Keith saw Lance wearing the pants the art work and the writing on the denim grew. All over it were hilarious quotes from the internet, doodles, and phrases like “Hunk was here.”

 

Just as Keith finished taking in the sight of the pants, Lance noticed him.

 

“Keith! I was looking for you,”

 

“Really?” Keith said, a little surprised and secretly excited. “What’s up?”

 

“I, I wanted you to sign my pants,” Lance answered with a blush.

 

Why was he blushing, there was clearly something that he was getting at that Keith didn’t quite catch.

 

As Keith moved to write something on the empty spot right above the knee, Lance moved away.

 

“Lance, cut it out, I thought you told me to write on your jeans.”

 

“I have, uh, I have a special place I want you to write on,” Lance admitted, blushing.

 

“Where?” Keith asked, straight faced, tired of Lance’s weird behavior.

 

After a quick steadying breath, Lance admitted what he wanted. “I want you to sign my ass, Keith,” Lance said confidently, face completely straight. As soon as the words came out, his face turned red. 

 

Keith had a blush that matched his friend’s.

 

“Well, what do I write?” Keith asked, looking away, avoiding looking at Lance.

 

“I mean, usually people write their name and then ‘owns this’ on butts, but you don’t, you don’t have to,” Lance answered, voice growing from a whisper to a shout.

 

Keith nodded, “I’ll do it. Yea, I’ll do that,” face still bright red.

 

Slowly, with shaking hands, Keith wrote “Keith owns this” on the left back pocket of Lance’s jeans. For added measure, Keith added a :K face instead of the ever popular :3 face that he saw a lot of girls do on their friends pants.

 

———

 

“I’m still not over the vampire face you made,” Lance said, in between laughs. “Isn’t that a smiley on Neopets?”

 

“It totally is,” Keith agreed laughing at the embarrassing memory as well. “I just, what was I thinking? Why did I think I was so edgy?”

 

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. But I’ve always liked how emotional you’ve been. Like even though you sucked at denying it in middle school, you’ve always been a big blusher,” Lance confessed, now blushing at admitting the secret.

 

“What? No I’m not,” Keith denied.

 

“Please, do you not remember the first time you admitted you love me?”

 

———

 

Though the air conditioning was on, the humidity was still seeping through the cracks of the house, making Keith and Lance wish that they were brave enough to change the thermostat to a lower temperature.

 

They were both quiet, in the dark, attempting to fall asleep even though it was early by their standards.

 

“Hey Keith, do you think when we’re in high school, or even in college that all of this stuff will matter?” 

 

“What do you mean,” Keith asked, clearly knowing exactly what Lance meant.

 

“You know, like will we care if people think we’re cool, or if a new Kingdom Hearts comes out, or if Naruto ever becomes hokage, or I don’t know, we’ll still hang out everyday?”

 

Keith pressed his lips together thinking about the future.

 

“I don’t know, but I can tell you that we’ll still be friends.”

 

“Yea? You promise?” Lance whispers, relief obviously there.

 

“Totally,” Keith agrees with a smile.

 

It’s quiet again and Keith turns on his side to get closer to Lance. He leans his head down and places it on his shoulder.

 

“R-rawr,” Keith mutters.

 

“What?” Lance asks, trying to get a better view of his best friend.

 

“It means ‘I love you’ in dinosaur.’”

 

Lance’s face twisted in confusion, then suddenly everything connected. “I? Yea. ‘Rawr,” too!! I love you too, Keith.” Lance confirmed, getting a little loud, excited about his realization.

 

“Shh, shh. My parents are sleeping.” Keith reprimanded, trying to contain his grin. There was a beat. “Wait, does this mean we’re boyfriends now?”

 

———

 

“I thought you knew what I meant,” Keith admitted, clearly embarrassed.

 

“I mean it did get you a boyfriend,” Lance replied, smugly.

 

“Yea an idiot boyfriend that loves his anime waifu more than he loves his actual boyfriend.”

 

Lance scoffed, “Listen, your hair just isn’t nearly as pretty as Satsuki Kiryuin’s.”

 

“That is true,” Keith jokingly admits.

 

There was silence on the line, both adults clearly lost in thought.

 

“Listen, I think you need to go to sleep, you have a big interview tomorrow and if you want me to be your trophy husband, I need you to get this job,” Lance says, clicking to the tab that had the Jojo episode up.

 

“Yea, I guess I should,” Keith said quietly. “Goodnight Lance, I love you.”

 

“Yea, ‘rawr’ to you too, Keith,” Lance answers back, a fond smile on his lips.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Consider the following:  
> \- keith and lance rping sasunaru on aim together  
> \- one of them getting a motorola razr and the other being super jealous  
> \- the whole voltron crew watching the first hsm together that week it came out when that was the only thing that disney channel showed.  
> \- lance, the ultimate middle school bisexual  
> \- keith reading twilight in eighth grade (my ass sure as hell did)
> 
> listen, I hated middle school but this was bizarrely cathartic. a special thank you to my partner in crime cait, for none of this wouldn't be possible without her middle school receipts. I was a wannabe prep in middle school and wasn't poisoned by anime until my freshman year of high school so I'm piggybacking off of her middle school experiences mostly. bless you cait.
> 
> if you have fic ideas, y'all know what to do.
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/vicunad) | [tumblr](http://countvonroo.tumblr.com/) | [commission info](http://countvonroo.tumblr.com/post/149196715942)


End file.
